Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When I first got my two azureus I also bought a fruit fly culture of what I assume is regular melanogaster (they can fly). Not liking these I aquired some flightless Hydei cultures from PetSmart. They seemed to enjoy them and I was happy they weren't flying all over my house! Anyhow, I set up 7 cultures following a recipe I found for "the power mix" as a backup I set up a culture of the flying ones too. Now I have hydei coming out of my ears and my frogs refuse to eat them. When they do get one of them they spit them out immediately. For some reason my culture of the little flying guys isn't producing... I have larva but less than a dozen flies. Could it be mites? What happens with mites? As for the hydei anyone ever see this? Could they be too big for them to eat? Could the medium I whipped up have made them taste bad? Once again ... I am stumped. Any help would be great!

Eve

Sounds like overfeeding. Wait until all the flies in the tank are gone. Wait one more day, then try them again.

What was this "power receipe" you found for the hydei. I'd be really intreasted to try it since I havn't had much luck with them lately. I wish I had more of them then I know what to do with, my frogs love them!!
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Chantel a.k.a. sillygirl
"I came, I saw, I adopted"

1.3 green anoles (Stumpy (M)), and the rest remain nameless.
1.1 green tree frogs (Romeo & Juliet)
1.2 Firebelly toads
3.2.0 D. Tinctorius (Surinam Cobalt)
1.1.6 D. Azureus
0.0.2 D. Leucomelas
0.0.1 Clown Tree Frog
0.1 Anerythristic 'B' (Charcoal)corn snake (Popcorn)
0.1 Snow Corn (KandyKorn)
0.2 Amel Corns (KornSilk & KornMuffin)
0.1 Normal Corn (PepperKorn)
1.0 Creamsicle Corn (Kream)
0.0.1 Giant African Millipede
1.0 Betta (Sushi, Charlie)
2.4 Domestic house cats (Bad Boy (m), Bart(m),Sasha(F),Little Bit(F),Spirit(F)
1.0 Rottweiler (Jake)
2.7 Rats (Mouse, Socks, Flower, Squishy, Fox, Lucky, Snow & Tinker)
1.3 Mice (My step-daughter seems to think they are pets)
2.0 Betta (Sushi, Blue)
1.0 Husband (David, who loves all my critters too)

Hi- I got this recipe off of doylesdartden.com. Be warned, it is a really yucky smelling mix but it has produced lots of flies. Good luck with it and thanks for posting.

Eve
Link

D. hydei shouldn't be too big for azureus, even young ones. You can purchase a culture of the smaller flightless melanogaster, if you suspect this is the problem. They have either crumpled or vestigial wings. Sometimes, if a culture gets contaminated with wild fruit flies or cross breeds with other types of fruit flies, some of the offspring may be be flighted, but fruit flies you purchase for feeding should not be of a flighted variety.

Overfeeding was mentioned, but if the frogs are actively catching the flies, then spitting them out, something else is going on. I tend to "overfeed" a lot, but the only problem here is that I have some obese frogs.

After trying out a lot of magic formulas that I brewed up myself, I've found that the dried media (mostly potato flakes, I assumre) and culture kits that Saurian.net sells do a great (unstinky) job with both D. hydei and D. melanogaster.

I've had other contaminants, such as a gnat-like creature that the frogs love to eat, and some small "scorpion spiders," so I don't worry about it, but have never experienced mites in a culture. These would be tiny 8 legged critters, like very tiny spiders. You should be able to spot them and see them better under a hand lense. They don't harm the frogs, only interfere with your culture, as I understand.

What kind of calcium/vitamin powder are you dusting the flies with before you feed them? There's an off-chance that the frogs may not like the taste of this, although I've never had them reject any of the dusts I have used. I'm using T-rex tree frog dust now, although in the past I've used various combinations of reptile dusts recommended by the breeders. This is a mystery.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus

Hi- I just wanted to say thanks- you have responded to my questions several times and I really appreciate it.

Anyway- after I noticed them spitting the hydei out I sat and watched for a long time and noticed that they seem to get the body of the fly in their mouths but the wings are always hanging out. This seems to irritate them so they swat or wipe them away and out goes the fly. I did notice that these hydei have really large wings. Maybe they taste bad?? Or they are tasting the dust and that is the problem. I am dusting with Rep-Cal Herptivite with Beta Carotene. I dust at every feeding- do I need to? I have seen some say that 1 or 2 times a week was good and others say every feeding. I saw that black jungle was selling a dust especially for dart frogs called Dendrocare. Have you ever used this?

I was also hoping you could give me a little guidance on fruit flies. There seem to be lots of types. I want to give them something meatier than the little mystery flies that I have (they look like regular fruit flies to me and they fly) but maybe with smaller wings since that is the potential problem. I found all of these at flyculture.com- there is a Wingless Drosophila melanogastor which sound like my guys would like. But there are also Flightless Drosophila melanogastor: (Curly Winged), Flightless Drosophila melanogastor (Turkish Gliders). Have you used any of these? If so, do they have the same large wings as the hydei? There was also this fly- which sounds like something newly bred. " Flightless Drosophila buzzatti: Larger than D. melanogastor, yet smaller than D. hydei. D. buzzatti are the perfect choice for animals that are to small to consume hydei but require a prey item larger than melanogastor." Never thought I would spend so much time thinking about fruit flies! Sorry to bombard you with questions. My guys are a good weight but I want them to be a little plumper. Thanks so much...

Eve

I've checked out Dendrocare, but haven't actually used it. I believe this is made by T. Rex, too. I use the tree frog dust because it has less vitamin A than the reptile dusts or Dendrocare, and I alternately dust with papkrika for the carotenes (some of which are converted to vitamin A.) I have a concern about overdosing on vitamin A, since this is fat soluble and is stored in the liver and not excreted. The carotenes on the other hand are converted to vitamin A as needed. The excess is stored in fat cells (thus the color enhancement) and is not toxic.) This enhances only yellow and reds, not blues, although logically, it could change the shade of blue somewhat. I don't know if it does this with my blue auratus or not. They seem to remain a bright blue, even with some paprika dust.

I dust every day, but 3 times a week is also recommended by some, who don't want to chance overdosing, so I don't really know for sure which is best. In four years, I haven't had a problem due to vitamin overdosing that I'm aware of. The frogs also need less as they get older, so daily dusting is probably more important with froglets and growing or breeding frogs than with older ones. The dusts get cleaned off fairly rapidly so the frogs aren't getting all dusted flies. There's no real way to measure just how much they are getting.

I think my D. melanogasters are the crinkled wing type. Wings are very small and useless, in any event. The middle sized guys might be worth a trial if your frogs don't like the hydei wings, which don't have much food value. None of mine seem to mind the wings, though. Maybe yours will get used to them eventually.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus

Thanks! Your responses are so detailed! I didn't know why the vitamin A caution was necessary...now I do. So I will have to track down the tree frog dust. Do you dust with regular paprika? from the kitchen? I will try the curly winged ones since they are so small. Thanks for the description ...that helps! Have a great day!

Eve

Check out Ed K's posts above under the UVB/A questions before you change anything. He discusses the Rep-Cal Herptivite combination pretty thoroughly. You can also check on what Sue Donahue is doing at:
Link

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus